Nabakalebara: Legends and Reality

Kejriwal’s Tirade of Abuse Hurled at Indian Parliament is a Game that Plutocrats Play

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Indian Parliament, which has not yet been able to codify its privileges, had to hear vociferous harping on about its privilege breached by anti-corruption campaigner Arvind Kejriwal in attributing non-materialization of the Jan Lokpal Bill to its being a House of criminals, to whom the Bill cannot but be an anathema.

Cutting across party lines, members wanted punishment for Kejriwal for the tirades of abuse he had hurled at the rampart of democracy.

The Speaker, however, tactfully closed a short-duration discussion, propelled by debates on Monday, on Tuesday with remarks that any comment detrimental to dignity of Parliament was “unwarranted and unacceptable”.

Had it any impact on Kejriwal?

No.

To him, the House should have addressed itself to introspection instead of spending so much energy on reaction to his remark.

As 162 of its members are charged with heinous crimes, it would not be surprising if the Jan Lokpal Bill does not materialize, he claims to have said.

When reasoning out as to why the anti-corruption bill is not materializing in the Parliament is not a direct disrespect shown to the Parliament, it cannot be overlooked that the inordinate delay in bringing out the law is enhancing credibility of a combine that has no real agenda for eradication of corruption.

We are sure, adoption of the Bill and creation of the so-called Jan Lokpal will not end or even control corruption in India.

As long as right viruses rule the roost, corruption shall continue to grow; because corruption is a method that adopters of Political Economy of Inequality – the plutocrats – use to stay safe and to prosper.

So, the opposite economy i.e. the Political Economy of Equality is the only way to curb corruption.

Kejriwal and his forum, the so-called Anna team, do not subscribe to Political Economy of Equality.

So, we suspect, they are just a combine that acts to divert mass awakening against corruption by promoting an environment that does not encourage evolution of Political Economy of Equality as the pivot of Indian progress.

Passive resistance to corruption is no resistance; because no corruption is passively practiced. It is aggressively practiced by self-seekers and therefore, its eradication entirely depends on aggressive attack on factors of corruption. The so-called Anna team and its so-called Gandhian way is not for aggressive attack and hence, is, in reality, against eradication of corruption.

The corrupt fellows that have ruined India have been enhancing credibility of this shrewd combine, so that the masses of India, who are waking up against maladies the country is suffering from, can be misled by this team to accept corruption as the substitute to corruption in the same way the people had accepted the Janata conglomerate as substitute to the Congress government, misled by Jayaprakash Narayan in the 1970s.

It would be wrong not to remember that when sporadic but aggressive protests against economic inequalities and exploitation were in the rise and the people suffocated due to corruption in every sphere of administration were in massive numbers joining the protests, Anna Hazare, with a Gandhi cap, was all on a sudden projected by corporate media as the new Gandhi capable of freeing the country of corruption and the most corrupt team so far to have taken over power, led by Dr. Manmohan Singh, had rushed to Anna in a way that only enhanced his credibility in public eyes exactly as Indira Gandhi had enhanced JP’s credibility by accepting him as the greatest political arbitrator, by forcing out of office her party’s Chief Minister of Gujarat Chimanbhai Patel on 9 February 1974 at his instance. But that, JP was not really against corruption manifested when the same Chimanbhai, after being expelled from the Congress on corruption charges, became the chief architect of a government by Janata Morcha that took oath on 18 June 1975. This Janata Morcha was so corrupt that it could not even complete one year in office and on 12 March 1975, its life had ended leading to rebirth of a Congress government in the state.

So, the corrupt government of Manmohan Singh inviting Anna to draft a Bill for the Lokpal of his concept, a group of elite of no unquestionable track records emerging as members of Anna team, the extra-constitutional drafting of the Bill fetching official collaboration through joint sessions of the so-called Anna team with committee of central ministers, the deliberate official delays in consideration thereof to give the Anna team required situations to consolidate its credibility as the real crusader against corruption by insisting on its ready adoption, the rabid right-wingers rallying behind him, denigration of Parliament by a Mumbai mainstream actor from Anna’s hunger-strike podium, Kejriwal’s tirades against MPs, barren reprimands behind his back in the house melting in a ruling of no action against attributing mala fide motive to Parliament and willful attempt to denigrate its dignity in public eyes, another member of the Anna team – Kiran Bedi – supporting and justifying Kejriwal even after the Speaker’s ruling, are a few samples of instances that have been used to enhance credibility of the so-called Anna movement, just to create a situation where people will like to rely more and more upon Anna in the present phase of their awakening so that in the consequence, the real beneficiaries of the current system stay safe, as the so-called JP movement had ensured, sans any change in political economy that has helped them build up their private empires in the Republic of India.

So, the unpunished tirade of abuse hurled at the Parliament of India by Anna team is a part of the game that plutocrats are shrewdly playing, and nothing else.

For every Indian patriot, to whom emancipation of the people matters, this poses a challenge.

WHY ORISSA, NOT ODISHA?

In these pages, the English spelling of the name of our motherland and mother tongue will remain Orissa and Oriya as before, instead of changing into Odisha and Odia.

Law has changed Orissa and its language Oriya to Odisha and Odia in English respectively. This is a very irresponsible law created by politicians having no knowledge on and devotion to classical uniqueness of Oriya language. When this bad law was on the anvil, we had opposed the proposal through several articles in these pages on grounds shown therein. And, when finally the law was created, we took it as an act of stupids. We stick to our observation and vow not to honor the bad law, come what may. For us, the classical uniqueness of our mother tongue Oriya is more important than the law enacted to change it. So, here we shall continue to use the words Orissa and Oriya notwithstanding enforcement of the law that has wrongfully changed them to Odisha and Odia. This is why this site will continue as orissamatters.com instead of converting into odishamatters.com on the strength of our devotion to the mother tongue which no law can change.
-Editor